1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric control device for generating control signals for controlling electrical devices. The control device has a multiplicity of control modules, at least some of which have a comparator for comparing two values and function in dependence of the various outcomes of comparison.
Such electric control devices are known in innumerable versions and are used for the most various purposes.
The intent in most cases of the comparison, as a function of whose outcome the various control modules operate, is to detect the instant at which the counting state of a counter attains a predetermined value. In the normal case, this can be accomplished in that upon each change in the counting state of the counter, it is checked whether the new counting state is equal to the predetermined value. The matter becomes more complex if the predetermined value can vary as well. In that case, it must often additionally be possible to check whether the new value is greater-than/equal-to the current counting state. The result of this in turn is that the comparators provided in the control modules must be greater-than/equal-to comparators or less than or equal to comparators. Such comparators include many components and are correspondingly large in size, which especially if a great number of control modules that operate as a function of the comparison must be provided is a serious problem. Providing many control modules can hardly be prevented, however, because control devices of the type defined at the outset are ever more frequently capable of simultaneously generating and outputting many control signals.